CMHC lowered its forecast for housing starts but not prices in 2014 and said sales and construction will be flat or barely higher in 2015 as the once-roaring market adjusts to a glut of condominiums coming onto the market, reports Reuters.
Canada Mortgage and Housing Corp said the nation's housing boom is coming to an end in what officials hope will be a soft landing as construction slows to more sustainable levels and sales and prices tick only slowly higher.
The CMHC said on Thursday housing starts will be in a range of 172,300 and 189,900 units in 2014, with a point forecast, or most likely outcome, of 181,100 units, down from 187,923 units in 2013. That is also down from CMHC's February estimated of 187,300 starts.
The agency said there will be 160,600 to 203,600 units started in 2015, with a point forecast of 182,100, also a downwardly revised forecast.
"Builders are expected to continue to manage their starts activity in order to ensure that demand from buyers seeking new condominium units is first channeled toward unsold completed units or unsold units that are currently under construction," Mathieu Laberge, deputy chief economist for CMHC, said in a statement.
